So Hurricane Sandy stopped by

Yeah, she paid us a visit. Dumb bitch caused a storm surge that flooded everything. Mr. Weebles and I had no electricity for a week and for several days we were trapped in the house. Check it out: This was the scene outside my window the morning after the storm. The Hudson River breached the seawall and ran apeshit. We usually live about a half mile from the water. I considered taking advantage of the opportunity to sell our house as a “riverfront condo” but the water eventually receded and ruined my plan.

For all of you living in the areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, I hope you weathered the storm safely and with minimal damage. May you all have much warmth, dryness, and comfort.

We were very lucky. We had no property damage and lost power for a week—a loonnnnnnggggggg week, but still just a week. There are many who are still waiting for heat and power, and I am incredibly sad and concerned for them. Not to mention the people who experienced complete destruction of their property. Awful. Just fucking awful.

So my week sucked, but it could have been much worse. And despite having no heat, I was warmed by the good wishes of you guys. Margarita, Honie, Maggie, Nigel, Cathy, El Guapo, Mike, La La, Rollergiraffe, Sweet Mother, Michelle, Brian, Meizac, Fish, The Ringmistress, and of course, Le Clown—thank you so much for emailing. I was so moved by your kind thoughts and your offers of help and support. And to all of you who posted to me on Facebook or sent along your good wishes via other bloggers—I can’t tell you how much the outpouring means to me. It never really occurs to me that my absence might be noted, as pathetic as that may sound. You are fantastic, caring human beings, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. As always, your kindness humbles me.

And you know, going through an experience like this teaches you a few things. I want to take a few minutes to share some of the lessons I learned.

It is not a good idea to use your butane lighter to heat up your microwave popcorn. Unless you really, really, really love those burnt kernels. And setting your hair on fire. And turning your house into an inferno.

Do not use your butane lighter to warm up your sex toys or your lube. I cannot emphasize this enough.

It is considered rude to use a hospital ER waiting room’s outlet to recharge your laptop. Okay, so they were on generator power. But it’s not like I was pulling the plug on someone’s respirator or life support, for crying out loud.

Men really do need to have at least some light when they’re using the toilet. If you choose not to heed this advice, do not go into your bathroom barefoot. Consider yourself warned.

Pioneers weren’t better than we are, they were just bored as fuck.That’s why they invented so much stuff. Forget everything you’ve heard about our forefathers having enterprising spirits. These people weren’t driven by grand visions or a desire to create things to help humanity. They were driven by mind-numbing, soul-crushing boredom.

Oh, little electrons, I will never take you for granted again. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever.

NOTE: Let’s all send our love and good thoughts to Brigitte. She also experienced power outage, and it’s quite possible that she hasn’t had her power restored yet. In this cold, snowy weather, I wish I could do more than send virtual hugs.

Glad you weathered the storm and you back, the blogosphere has been a bit quieter the last week. If your apartment scene was overlooking the Regents Canal in Camden it would cost at least £1million. That is also a very valid point on pioneers.

I live a couple of minutes from the canal, maybe not the most attractive section though. I’m going to do a post introducing my little enclave to the world, you may recognise many places already. I’ll head out next weekend taking a few snaps of some of my favourite things. Was the graffiti saying KENTISH TOWN! on the side of the tube station back then?

Me too, Chica B! I had thought about putting together some sort of makeshift diving board or slide, so that I could enjoy my new river, but then I remembered that the combo of river water, raw sewage, and motor oil probably wouldn’t be all that much fun after all.

Oh, my God, I can’t imagine waking up to a sight like that! I’m so glad to hear you’re okay and life is getting back to normal. And I hope we’ll soon hear from Brigitte, too. You have both been missed, and I’ve wondered how badly the storm hit you both.

I love the way you’ve found inspiration in the surroundings. I bet you would have kicked some serious ass as a pioneer!

It was a wild scene, JM! I think it was easy for me to find some humor in this because we weren’t really so adversely affected. And thank you for the vote of confidence, but I’m quite certain I would have made a shitty pioneer. I’d be all whiny, “It’s so dark in here all the time! I’m bored! When is someone going to invent television already??”

Weebs,
Tears of joy to see your notice in my email yesterday and this morning. Really! I knew you were okay from our emails but this means you now have power (of course you always carry that with you but the ConED type). And of course you were missed, silly girl. I grew up in Atlanta where we would get those horrible ice storms and be without power for a week or two. Not at all fun and that was before internet… And thanks for the tips. Glad to hear Brigitte is okay, she’s really been in my thoughts. Has anyone heard from V?
Cathy

You’re the best, Cathy. You truly are. I’m so happy to have the electricity type of power again! I didn’t know Atlanta got ice storms–that would be brutal, going through week-long (or worse) outages on a yearly basis. And now that we’ve all heard from Brigitte, I feel better. V is fine, she commented below somewhere!

I’m so relieved that you are well and not trying to warm any lube with butane (anymore). I was thinking about Brigitte today – I hope we hear from her soon. Looking forward to reading more posts that erupt from your brain o’clever.

Glad to have you back. I am glad you warned me about the lube thing. Wait what? I was also thinking about Brigitte. Glad you said something, because I wasn’t aware she was still possible in the dark. Virtual smothering hug sent.

I didn’t realize you lived in one of the areas hardest hit until after seeing your fb posting. I had thought you were somewhere midtown — sheesh! Brigitte dealt with some flooding and there’s another blogger I talk to from Long Island whose house was deluged. Mike’s okay now I see up there but he had a trial with power. For the first time a lot of people are experiencing something they’ve only read about. I was inspired to see how you were helping people and not surprised. Welcome back.

Thanks Sandee! I wanted to help somehow, since I was so much less affected than so many other people. Lots of bloggers in affected areas, I’m glad everyone is okay, but it’s always so sad to hear about people losing their homes.

Relieved to hear you are safe, Madame!!! Not that I’m paranoid, or anything. But yeah. I kinda am.
I’ve never experienced anything like that… the closest I ever came was 2 or 3 days without power after an ice-storm (and that was about all I could handle) all destruction and property damage… I can’t even imagine. Awful…

Thanks, Sig! It seems that a lot of people here experience ice storms with outages. That doesn’t sound like much fun either. But yeah, after a week without power, I just sat there looking at the television and whimpering.

Cookies are on the way Weebs! If I send them to Madame Weebles, New York, you’ll get them right? Looking forward to being neighbors…after you get that river/storm thing under control 🙂
So glad you’re back!

I was very aware that where you nest was hard hit and wondered how you were doing. Glad you didn’t drown, but sorry that you were stuck in the dark and cold for so long. It is very disturbing that these 100-year horrible weather events are looking more and more like annual occurrences. Milton and I got through it safely and with power throughout. He resides on the Upper East Side, and I on the Upper West. I have suffered some survivor’s guilt but he reasons that we’ll pay dearly when the tsunami hits Manhattan.

hello! glad you are safe and back, glad also you didnt lose your home or your sense of humour. i too live near a river and shall be taking your butane advice on board in case the River Itchen goes postal.

It was a bit nightmarish, Robin, but for me, at least, the nightmare is now over! I am typing this in a well-lit and appropriately heated house, and all is well. The sex toys, well, they gave their lives for a good cause.

Deep joy to see your return; I may occasionally make dire statements about the life-threatening nature of the weather around here, but that’s always just a matter of wearing the right hat. Yours was, in an uncorrupted form of the expression, brutal.

So glad you’re okay and that you didn’t suffer too much personal loss, but I’m sure it’s painful to see all that destruction around you. It must have been even more painful and bizarre to see the rest of the country carrying on as if nothing had happened. A truly horrific storm. Good luck getting back to normalcy, if indeed such a thing is possible.

That’s the one good part about not having power, Carrie–I couldn’t see the rest of the country carrying on normally! But even so, I actually found it comforting to know that outside of my area, life was going on as usual.

Yikes! The storm wasn’t bad at all near me in South Jersey. My dad lives in Union County and he lost power for a few days, nothing too bad otherwise. It’s ridiculous how some people acted as if they got such a terrible beating when much worse things happened to others. Nobody I know in NYC had anything too bad happen. Glad to see you’re doing good and didn’t freak the fuck out like so many idiots did.

People can be drama queens. I saw a lot of that too–they were freaking out because their iPads were running low on power. Cry me a fucking river. You still have a house and it isn’t waterlogged, so shut the hell up. Glad you didn’t have any problems yourself.

I would love to be caught in a storm with you…you guys have popcorn and sex toys and piss everywhere. I never thought the pioneers were above us either. Cheers!! Glad you are okay. Your humbleness is humbling.

I’m telling you, Speedo, it was a party for the ages. I’m still coming down from it. And as for the pioneers, pffft. That’s why they tinkered and invented stuff. Anything to keep from dying of boredom.

Not a good mix at all, Nigel. Beware. It seemed like a good idea at the time, though. Meanwhile I’m wondering if this sort of flooding will see stilts making a comeback. You just don’t see many stiltwalkers these days. Shame, really.

You’re such good people, Frank. Thank you so much for thinking of me. No electricity really is no fun. The first day or two are manageable, but then it really becomes just deadening. I’m still giddy when I turn on the light switch and the light comes on. I feel reborn!

So glad that you survived Sandy without too much damage. I really love that you’ve been able to keep your sense of humour. And I can’t believe the hospital wouldn’t let you recharge your computer. Do they not know that Madame Weebles is an essential service?

I heard about a student nurse who plugged in her phone charger at the hospital getting kicked out of her academic program. Yikes!

And yikes on the picture too. Glad you two are okay now. We know a lot of folks who STILL have no power. Many are mid-island, where the water damage isn’t bad, but LIPA’s been slow. We were lucky not to lose power, esp. since we don’t have a fireplace or a gas stove. I think that may be the takeaway lesson: If possible, buy a house with a fireplace!

Ahhh, LIPA. As if they’re any better than LILCO. Remember them? I feel for all the folks on the Island, in Queens and Brooklyn, Staten Island, and NJ who still have no power. We’re coming up on two weeks. Enough already. Glad you didn’t lose power, Lovely—we have a gas stove and a gas-fired water heater so we were okay in that regard, but so many others aren’t so lucky

I’m so glad you’re alive and back among the electrically powered. I’ll be honest, you’re braver than I am for touching anything in the ER. I’ve spent time there recently because of my dad, and I’m afraid of everything in it.

I hope you hear from Brigitte soon. Oh, and don’t call it a hurricane on the insurance forms if you have damage. I heard the insurance companies are pissed that it wasn’t officially classified as a hurricane because if it was, they could’ve gotten out of paying off claims. They’re probably trying to take it out on as many people as they can.

Hello purplemary! (I didn’t actually try charging my laptop at the ER) Thank you so much, I am glad to be back as well. Brigitte is back, I assume by now you’ve seen her post. 😀 And as for insurance, we actually are required to have flood insurance. So they can’t play any games with semantics. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Thanks, Darla. And right?? I wouldn’t have thought that a week without power could cause such trauma—and I hate using that word because it’s not like I was in Nam or anything. But it *was* traumatic in a way. No television! No Internet! No light! No refrigeration! Horrible.

I know, it always could be worse. Losing everything like some people. But I still think having no heat is a big deal. Especially when it dips down into the teens. My apartment was frozen, my toilet cracked. I ended up driving to my mom’s house and sleeping on her floor in front of a kerosene heater for warmth. The one good thing about it is, you truly appreciate the simple things in life.

Oh Weebles it’s great to see you back! So glad you’re ok after such a horrible time, I wish I didn’t know what it’s like but unfortunately I’ve had to go through it before too. Hope you had a gas supply that held out! We ended up cooking on throw away BBQ’s when it happened here lol, novel at first, bloody annoying after a few days!

Hi Mel! Yeah, the novelty wears off fairly quickly, doesn’t it. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through it too, but I suppose most places have had outages at one time or another. Fortunately we did have a gas supply that held us in good stead. Thank you!!

Floods are a biatch and no mistake, been 11 years since I last had to put up with it and hopefully it’ll never happen in my new house (on the top of a hill lol). Fingers crossed it never attacks you again either 🙂 xx

I’m a bit late in catching up with blogs, but was pleased when you posted you were ok, and am really happy you managed the week without power and didn’t have any damage to your home. Glad you’re back, Madame Weebles.

Thanks Pete! You know what, one of those submerged cars is still sitting there, the owner hasn’t had it towed away or anything. It’s a disgusting mess, so maybe the owner just wanted to remember his/her car the way it was. Because you know there’s not much they can do to make that thing presentable for the wake.